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A Brief History of the 23rd Precinct

by: Research and Destroy New York City

Publication date: 2012

Topics: NYPD, police brutality, east harlem

Collection: researchanddestroyarchive; zines

Language: English

For the 45th anniversary of the East Harlem riots/rebellion. 120 pp. 2012.

“We walked off together up to Third Avenue and it was already starting to happen. Everywhere we looked were policemen. I saw a bottle thrown out of a window. It looked like a star and when it hit the street, it made a long path of bright yellow fire, a Molotov cocktail. Then I saw another, and another, and intermingling with its bright light were defined screams and crystal sounds of what seemed to be thousands of bottles being smashed in.... I saw the running of the crowds in and out of the blocks and blocks beyond, and each time they came back on Third Avenue, more were added. Just then, more Molotov cocktails were thrown out of windows and the sounds of smashing bottles were like weird sounds of a street symphony. It reminded me of when, as a young boy, I had read Dante’s description of the Inferno.”